NASCAR WCUP: Bobby Labonte Quotes, Texas Post Qualifying
Posted By Terry CallahanMotorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
March 31, 2001
BOBBY LABONTE, NO. 18 INTERSTATE BATTERIES PONTIAC GRAND PRIX:
(ON QUALIFYING SECOND) "The car was just perfect. We worked real hard on in throughout practice and made a lot of changes on it, of course, from the beginning of practice until the very end. We pretty much surprised ourselves to be as good as we ended up because we really didn't think we'd go that fast."
(WAS THIS THE BEST LAP YOU COULD HAVE GOTTEN TODAY?) "Yeah. Today it was. If I had to do it over tomorrow I might be able to do it a little bit better, but when I do that I usually screw up. We didn't really have any practice laps doing qualifying runs. Usually my first shot is the best and if I do it too many times I usually screw up, so maybe it was the best I had for the situation today."
(YOU QUALIFIED 2ND, YOUR TEAMMATE, TONY STEWART, 37TH. COMMENT ON THAT) "We talked about things quite a bit after practice was over. It's just about the feel of what you want in the race car. Our setups were different today. I did drive his car for about three laps. I ran slower than he did. I think it was more of a feel thing that he needed in his car that I found in mine earlier today. We kind of went up one branch of a tree and he went up another branch of a tree. That was probably more of the difference than anything."
(ON THE CROWD TODAY) "It was great. What a great crowd. I didn't say it, but I heard somebody else say it: I don't know how many people they had here today, but it looked like it could have been a full house at some racetracks - at a smaller track or something. It was pretty awesome that they had this many people come out on a Friday afternoon.
"Like Dale [Jarrett] said, it's great to see Junior (Dale Earnhardt, Jr.) get the pole. He does need a boost. That's great for their team. The crowd definitely cheered him on while he was qualifying and after he won the pole. That's still a great deal for him and for all the fans to be here to see that. The amount of them is still overwhelming on a Friday afternoon. You just wouldn't think of seeing this many at most places."
(HOW IMPORTANT IS THIS WEEKEND FOR YOUR TEAM?) "It's real important, and to come here to Texas is more important. But the way we've run the past couple weeks, then we had a couple problems the two weekends before, we've really felt like we've a fish out of water you might say. Coming here and qualifying second today definitely gives us a lot of confidence for Sunday's race. I sure would like to win this race because Terry [Labonte] has done it before and I would like to say that I did the same thing he did. It would be kind of cool."
(HOW MUCH WILL YOU HAVE TO CHANGE THE CAR FOR SUNDAY?) "It's no different than any other in a lot of ways, if you change the setup. You've still got to hold on to it for 500 miles. Still to me, it's a tricky race track. It's tricky to figure out a lot of times. The past four races here have all had different scenarios thrown at them - from first lap crash to exciting finish at the end - different types of situations. Your thought process is probably no different than Bristol. You just have to take care of your stuff and you've got to be there at the end. It will be faster than Bristol, but it's still the same thought process."
Text provided by Al Larsen
Editors Note: To view hundreds of hot photos and racing art, please visit The Racing Image Galleries and The Visions of Speed Art Gallery .